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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Hey, good morning.
It is 806.
Nice to have you back here.
We are live in Madison Studio A2 along with Parker Olson producing things here on a special day at Civic Media where all of the hosts once or twice a year managed to lock ourselves in a room kind of in a cage match fashion and we'll see who comes out on the other side of it.
So in terms of the programs you'll be hearing today after we're all done here.
We've got math Rothschild filling in for Jane and Greg for Matt and air on air You've got trig v. Olson who's gonna be pinch hitting for Todd Alba today You're gonna have John and Gordy from our Madison Station Filling in for Maggie Dawn today and then tomorrow will be story day as we talk all about the the icebreaker that we had today and the games that we played and the the weighty matters that are discussed as well
I came all the way down here for a host meeting.
a little retreat.
And we're just going to be in the conference room down the hall.
I have no idea.
I mean, a lot of these corporate retreats are at these nice centers and there's catered meals and there's all this other stuff.
And you're saying we're basically, we're no different than Brittany Merleau in a rain slogged tent somewhere in Oshkosh?
pretzels with peanut butter in them?
You know, I almost bought those as a snack.
That's so funny that you mentioned that, but I've got like the pretzels.
Pretzels
key.
Brittany, I gotta say, I see you're joining us by phone here.
I've been watching the rain move in on the radar toward Oshkosh and only now.
in your last report for the week before you take some, some well deserved time off.
Are you giving that vibe of, yeah, we're at the campground, you know, it's, it's day 41, the pretzels have run out.
Uh, I, I don't even know what soap is anymore because I got hungry on day 32.
And yet here you are still reporting for us from the campground at EAA air venture.
God bless you.
you so much.
It is a rough of power.
There's no power only a few of them have pow of us, thousands of us on solar.
Um, so keepin internet is so crazy t of people and then you p of that.
Yeah, we're g
Is it Tuesday, Wednesday?
I wish it was Friday.
Time is a flat circle at this point and you're doing it all off a diesel powered cell phone, which is very cool.
However it is you're getting it done.
The theme today is stormy, then hot, and then stormy again, right?
It sure is.
I mean, we've got heat advisories for most of the state, especially South from about Eau Claire to Green Bay South.
We're going to see temperatures hitting into those.
low to mid 90s there plus t on top of that.
It's goi gross oppressive.
It's
And now all that heat, all that humidity and stability is going to fire up some strong to severe storms and we are looking at a slight risk from the storm prediction center for northern parts of the state.
And we are looking at a tornado threat north of was on to the Rhinelander Hayward even Eau Claire area as we go through this evening.
I think they're going to start around two o'clock very isolated at first hail chances with that high winds tornadoes.
and then a line builds that pushes into far northwest parts stayed around six and works its way through the rest as well.
Now I do think it's going to start to break up and lessen out right around central Wisconsin.
I don't think we're going to get too crazy here in Oshkosh later this evening, but time will tell because the heat and humidity I it's going to be pretty unstable.
So I do think the threat will be everywhere.
But again, northern parts stay safe tonight.
Yeah, without a doubt and keep it tuned to your local station for all the weather updates there.
We've talked about the programs at AirVenture and all of the planes and the infrastructure and the food.
We haven't really talked much about the people and I'm sure there's no shortage of characters that you bump into as you're hanging out with a half a million close personal friends.
Oh, it's amazing.
Yesterday I got to talk to this.
female, who is an aerobatic pilot.
It is her first year here at Oshkosh and she is flying in the show this afternoon.
So I got to talk to her and she's actually one of the four or five people competing for the U.S.
in the world championships.
I think it's in two weeks and hungry.
So she's going to be representing us in aerobatics.
And speaking
of
aerobatics, that's the night show is tonight.
And they do flips and tricks and shoot fireworks off these aerobatic planes and smoke and
It's something to see.
So it was really cool to be able to talk to her and I also talked to a NOAA person up here as well.
Not many of them here, but I will say that they do weather briefings and for all of these shows and stuff that goes on and I'm going to get to go behind the scenes and see that today, what the federal government does.
for these pilots before they take off for these major air shows.
So that's been pretty cool.
But I mean, otherwise, I mean, the history here, people have been coming here for so many years.
They're so excited to be here and you just make so many friends.
Front gate security.
She, her daughter flies 148th by your jet and she just loves it.
She's like, I met people from, oh my gosh, Turkey, Australia, all this.
She's like, now they're my friends and I camp with them.
That's amazing people.
Why do I also have a note in front of me to ask you about a yodeler?
I did not want to forget abou
He goes.
I think it's good three minutes.
He is yodeling throughout the grounds, the campground, everything just to wake us up.
Gates are open.
Here we go.
Hasn't been shot yet.
I'm not gonna send you guys a clip of that
later.
We'll be looking for that.
And again, Brittany's taking some time off to really enjoy things, but check her out on social media and we'll talk to you all about it come Monday morning again.
Brittany, thank you very much.
Have fun.
Thank you.
Thanks guys.
See you later.
All right.
Yep.
So great to see you.
I'm very excited for the time that she's going to have here.
All right.
Just about 8.13.
Let's bring in Earl Ingram now because he's got his what's going on podcast.
Lots of great things going on with that.
We're going to talk about the late Congressman John Lewis in just a sec.
Your ongoing discussions with Dr. Howard Fuller as well.
But I'm going to start with baseball, not just because we were talking about the Brewers here, but recently were the Negro League game tributes.
And I don't wanna lose time for you to talk about, you know, that part of your podcast project that you're gonna be working on next, Earl.
Well, good morning.
Good morning.
And so a gentleman named Dennis Biddle who resides in Milwaukee, who is 90 years young.
He's been the face of the Negro League over the last,
would say 20 years and so he's the one voice that gathers the others as about 25 Negro League players still around in this country and so every year he brings as many of them who can make it to an event that I MC every year and I MC'd it again this year and so
As we were doing this and I got to thinking, you know, he's 90 years old.
He's a guy who really, along with Bud Selick, worked to bring pensions to Negro League players who played Negro League baseball and then also wound up playing in the Major Leagues.
It's a very, very fascinating gentleman, a great story.
And I'm looking forward to on this Friday, excuse me.
beginning a series with him.
It's going to be a fantastic series.
I'm sure nationally people will open their eyes to the history of what he'll be able to bring.
Oh, that'll be wonderful to see because, you know, again, you can see the tribute games, but it's a reminder of
just what all segregation brought to this country and, you know, the battle for desegregation and for civil rights.
And it pivots very nicely to another of your most recent podcast episodes, marking five years since the passing of civil rights leader and former Congressman John Lewis.
Well, I don't know if you can see it.
I have on my John Lewis t-shirt.
I can.
Yes.
And, um, and John Lewis, for people who don't know former Senator, United States Senator John Lewis,
was a man who five years ago on the 16th past and so over 1600 rallies across the entire nation depicting John Lewis and what was considered good trouble he always talked about you know we can talk about trouble but if the trouble is good trouble then it's worthy and so over you know tens of thousands of people gathered
and rallied in their particular neighborhoods to say that good trouble didn't die with John Lewis.
And if ever there was a time that this needed to take place and continue, it's now because of what's happening in this nation.
And so Menominee Falls is an affluent community.
And I can tell you there was hundreds and hundreds of people who were gathered as they
basically wanted to let the world know that they're not happy with what took place, what is taking place.
And the amazing thing about this is, Pat, I remember being at several rallies in racing earlier this year.
And the people who were at those rallies were elders, were seniors.
The same thing with this.
These are seniors who have decided
that they're not going to remain silent in the face of what is taking place now.
Tell us a bit more about, you know, it's not just, you know, my nominee falls in particular, but I mean, as somebody who 30 years ago lived in the Milwaukee area and saw firsthand the resistance to the suburbs of a more diverse and integrated community, what are some of the challenges being faced today?
Well, they haven't changed much.
You know, when you look at the fact that, you know, Wisconsin, especially the state of Wisconsin, the black population is only 5%.
And people across the state may not know that.
And so they may believe that there are a lot more than 5% black in this state, but this is one of the most surrogate states still.
entire nation and black people still face a lot of discrimination and racism.
It's not something people are willing to talk about, but it certainly has reared its head even more so under President Donald Trump.
And so in the face of all of these different things, I know I was talking with the president of the Urban League and they're about to make some noise about all the different things that have been taken away.
They're concerned about affirmative action being jettisoned.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion, which was smeared and led people to believe things that really weren't true.
And so there's so many different things that my generation is concerned about, about our grandchildren and great-grandchildren and what they're gonna face in a nation.
We came out of a time, we're talking about John Lewis,
the civil rights struggle and so many of us live through that as young people and fought that fight and we're not going to be around the fight to fight for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren because the clock is anybody you know blind person could see that the clock has been turned back and and so this is the battle that we must wage
And it's good to see that people from across the nation are willing to wage that battle.
Injustice is injustice.
It doesn't matter where it is.
That's right.
And to learn more about that, as well as the episode about the forthcoming about the Negro Leagues and the ongoing conversations with Howard Fuller about the history of the voucher program in Milwaukee, head to civicmedia.us shows, and look for what's going on with Earl Ingram.
Earl, appreciate it as always.
Thank you so much for the updates.
All right.
All right.
Have a great day.
And when we come back, Melissa Baldoff will be here with our climate check live on the Civic Media Radio Network from Madison.
I'm Pat Krightlo.
Back in a bit.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
The Milwaukee Brewers 11 game win streak came to an end losing at Seattle last night, one to nothing.
So the next winning streak continues to build this afternoon.
If we can get to one this afternoon, a pregame starts at 205 from Seattle on several civic media stations.
Brewers are off tomorrow and then begin a weekend series Friday against the Florida Marlins.
Melissa Baldoff joins us now to have this week's climate check, which.
Has the usual load of Depressing headlines about what the Trump administration is doing and we will get to that and by the way and people go Why are you even doing it?
That's so depressing because a record must be made of of what's happening here.
Melissa.
That's why we do this.
God knows it's not fun
It's necessary.
The record needs so that people can't go, why didn't you tell us this is what Trump was going to do?
Here's exactly what he said he was going to do.
Here's exactly what he's doing.
And so we take a little time each week for that.
And I also just have to have to note, um, I, to your point about the brewers, uh, next winning streak starting today, um, Joe and our son, Jonah, were very bummed to not be getting there.
uh, free web burgers.
Um, they went together in 2018 to get their free web burgers.
It was a, it was a great father son moment.
So, uh,
They'll look forward to getting their next free web burgers together.
There's still time.
I mean, there, there's still 61 games out there.
Left plenty of time to go get, get a
Yes.
There's
of time.
And, and there, no burger tastes better than a free burger.
If you can get that.
So, uh, so along with the, the usual headlines, you know, from the federal level, we have today courtesy of Caitlin Luby at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, uh, this headline about the Great Lakes.
Extreme heat, warmer water, more ticks, fewer fish.
Climate change report brings grim news.
It's a report that was put together by the Environmental Law and Policy Center conducted by researchers around the Great Lakes.
It's an update to a report from 2019 that examines the impact of a changing climate on the lakes themselves and the surrounding region.
Now none of this is to take, you know, the Trump folks off the hook.
Again, there's plenty that they're doing now to make things worse.
But what I got out of this, Melissa, was, you know, essentially documentation that again.
a changing climate has been something that's been with us for our lifetimes, but it's only now that we are truly seeing what is happening, you know, in terms of tangible evidence around the Great Lakes.
And like I said before, it is important to put that record out there for folks.
And it's important to put it out there in very clear terms, the way that Caitlin did in this story.
And I commend her.
for doing this.
And it, you know, it shouldn't, we shouldn't have to commend journalists for just doing their jobs.
But I feel like more and more we have to recognize people who are who are doing the work the way it should be done.
Because, you know, when I first saw this story, I was, you know, just, you know, thinking, ah, is this going to be watered down at all?
And it's not.
I directly hear from the story.
Let me read this quote here from the story.
It says, despite the discouraging tendency these days to see everything through a political prism, the science itself is incontestable and apolitical.
Climate change is caused by human activity, primarily the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas.
Period.
The end.
Those are the facts.
It ended with coal, oil, and gas.
Now I'm opining here.
No, it
was all I could do not to do a fist pump when I saw that because there was no, no squishy language there.
It is what it is.
And that's so important to get that out there.
And like you said, why we make this record, why we talk about it, why we lift up important work like this, what, you know,
the good news and the bad news, even though a lot of it's bad news, unfortunately, it's important to have these conversations, especially when we get this very clear, you know, these very clear statements of fact and make sure that people are aware of them and see them.
And, you know, I know a lot of the folks who are listening to us right now agree with us, but it's important that anyone who's listening to us
you know, you might have people in your lives who don't necessarily, you know, share your beliefs.
And it's important for them to hear this and for them to be aware and, you know, let them read this article, let them see the facts and hopefully we can start bringing more people in to understand the gravity of this situation.
So they will make this a top issue when they go to vote because we know that it's not always a top issue for people.
climate isn't when they go to vote.
You know, it's people are very driven by economic issues and you know, climate really is an economic issue too.
And that's something that's you know, mentioned in this in this article as well.
We need to make sure people are understanding, you know, just the gravity of the situation on climate, the way that it impacts the economy, our health and the environment.
And of course, there are things we could be doing about it, but it gets us to the depressing headlines.
This morning's headline, EPA is said to be drafting a plan to end its ability to fight climate change.
It would eliminate the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions threaten human life by warming the planet.
There's a headline that says EPA will eliminate its scientific research arm.
Here's one, EPA delays requiring cleanup of toxic coal ash landfills.
Here's another one.
department to put wind and solar projects through a stricter political review.
Thank
God, Melissa, we also have from the Environmental Defense Fund, two bits of good news.
One about cargo ship industry agreeing to assess themselves for, you know, fuel use.
And another about how clean energy investment is booming globally.
And so in the few seconds we have left, let's cling to that last one.
Even with hostile governments, there's still plenty of people that want to make the investment in a cleaner planet.
And, you know, unfortunately,
Our country, our leadership in this country isn't committed to doing this, but globally we are seeing that's what leaders are doing.
And it's just another area where the United States is going to be left behind the global economy and what's happening worldwide.
And it's another way we are, unfortunately, a laughing stock because of the orange guy.
What's the bald off succinctly put?
Thank you so much.
Have a great day.
do back after this on the civic media radio network Was that our dance remix version of the of the bumper music
we have all been guilty of double punching.
You know what's worse though is double punching on a camera button, a, you know, a TV camera or whatever.
When you, you think you've got the interview and then you realize you double punched.
And so it started and then stopped recording.
And you have to go to that person and go, can you say it again?
And actually the very.
the very first time I enter, I taped an interview with Joseph Pecky for this program.
I had to call him back like five minutes later and say, Joe, I click the mouse twice and it did not record.
It started and stopped and he was nice enough to do that.
So yeah, anyway, happens to us all.
Uh, stay up to date on our unabashedly, Wisconsin news at up North news by going to up North news, w I dot com, clicking subscribe in the top banner.
And today's edition, uh, we.
can tell you all about the only Wisconsin high schooler invited to this year's NFL Draft Combine, all about a player who has been selected in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball Draft by the New York Mets.
So that's in there along with a story about a new study that ties our state's weak gun laws to child deaths in Wisconsin.
Again, all that and more over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
In terms of reaction to the climate news here, I like how Tony puts MAGA, seems very focused on winning the 20th century again.
Not so interested in winning the future or even being involved in it really.
And he's, he's very true to revisit some of this.
And I, I simply was not going to subject poor Melissa to having to do, you know, a very long drawn out version of these headlines, but all the headlines I read you in that, in that last segment, they're real.
And we're going to come back to them in just a bit here, but I really want to, again, like Melissa did, commend to you the Caitlin Luby article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about this new study of the impact of a changing climate on the Great Lakes done by the Environmental Law and Policy Center.
Since 1951, the average annual air temperature around the Great Lakes
has increased by three degrees Fahrenheit.
Three degrees.
That is a stunning change when you consider the cooling effect that the Great Lakes can have on a region.
So if this part of the world with the Great Lakes is still warming up three degrees since 1951,
which again, if somebody tells you, oh, that's no big deal, maybe direct them to a science class.
It is a very big deal.
And it just tells you just how widespread this climate is.
The article quotes Don Wobbles, lead author of the assessment, and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois.
Climate is one of the most important issues facing humanity.
We are driving changes.
And now we have to figure out together what we do about it.
Now, some of the takeaways make sense.
More dangerous heat waves.
That's understandable.
And those heat waves are killing, you know, more people unnecessarily.
There are more extreme rain events in the Great Lakes region since 1951.
Annual total precipitation has increased by 15%.
just since between 2017 and 2024, the number of days with at least two inches of rain was 6% higher than the average from 1986 to 2016 and 37% higher than the period between 1901 and 1960.
So from 1901 to 1960 versus the last seven years,
the number of days with at least two inches of rain, which could cause flash floods is up 37%.
The warmth of the air and the water has led to declining ice cover on the Great Lakes, which only perpetuates the cycle.
Lake levels are rising.
The water temperatures are rising and there are vanishing fish populations.
Lake white fish in some places are on the verge of collapse.
with models showing that in Lake Michigan, the prized species may disappear from some parts of the lake within five years.
And even if commercial fishing for Lake Whitefish ceases, they could still face local or regional extinction.
There's another part of the study that we talked about yesterday with a guest from up north, and that is about tick-borne illnesses.
And it's one of those things again, I think a lot of people don't think about, but with warmer days and longer growing seasons for some of the areas where ticks will gather and grow, then the amount of tick-borne illnesses will grow as well, increasing the risk for diseases in humans and in wildlife as well, by the way.
The updated assessment, the article says, also highlights that old growth forests are still taking in a significant amount of carbon dioxide out of the air.
For instance, tree ring data from 9,000 trees in northern Wisconsin show that older trees store more carbon than scientists previously thought.
The fact that old growth trees store more carbon underscores why cutting them down is a serious mistake, according to Wobbles.
Somebody please put this article printed out, put it in an envelope, send it to Congressman Tom Tiffany, and stop this whole notion of cutting down our forests.
And of course, this all has an economic toll that it takes on the Great Lakes as well.
So that's the Great Lakes study.
But the fact of the matter is that, yes, everything else that we talked about from Trump's EPA, those are all true headlines.
The EPA is drafting a plan to end its ability to fight climate change.
It will eliminate its scientific research arm at the Environmental Protection Agency.
It is delaying required cleanups of toxic coal ash landfills.
And it is going to put wind and solar projects through a stricter political review, creating new delays and bottlenecks for renewable energy projects.
This is all cartoon villain stuff.
This is this is Bond movie super villain stuff that you would have thought all these years was never going to be possible in the real world and Here we are in the real world and it is exactly what we're living through right now is this belief that Anything that that you know oil and coal want to do should
be encouraged that clean energy industries and the jobs that they create should be shut down and on and on it goes.
Here's another extension of it.
You know, Selena Heller works on not just stories for up North news, but for other courier newsroom sites around the country.
And one of the articles that she just finished was one out of Texas.
and talks about the Trump administration cuts into funding for the viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes.
Texas has seen hundreds of cases of West Nile virus in recent years.
Some of them resulting in deaths.
West Nile is transmitted by mosquitoes.
But as Selena writes, the administration has swatted research, I see what she did there.
The administration has swatted research grants from the National Institutes of Health.
The Galveston National Laboratory as a result has lost nearly $20 million so far.
The research facility is on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch.
It focuses on infectious disease research and it is losing highly trained researchers
while also seeing next generation researchers go into other careers.
And there's more.
Veterans in Texas are losing their careers because of the Trump administration.
Nearly 900,000 civilian federal employees are either veterans, spouses of veterans, or spouses of active military.
representing 30% of the entire federal government workforce.
So federal government employees are disproportionately likely to be veterans due to federal government hiring preferences in the past.
And Texas has more veterans than any other state.
But between the top five states for employing veterans, some 50,000 employed veterans or spouses could be affected.
William Attig of the Union Veterans Council calls it the largest attack on veteran employment in our lifetime.
Again, just cartoon villain stuff that we could see.
So you may ask, what is it that the Trump administration is doing that is proactive?
What are what is some good news that we can hang our hats on Parker?
What what what can I point to and say to you?
Here is something that is proactive.
I believe, I believe I have found it.
Really?
Right here, yes.
No.
Yeah, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee voted on Tuesday to rename the opera house at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Rename it for First Lady Melania Trump.
Ah, all is right in
now.
It was all part of amendments to a package of bills that fund the U.S.
Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The same one where I told you they're eliminating the scientific research arm.
But the bill funding that agency includes language to designate at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, the first lady Melania Trump Opera House.
done?
Uh, well, let's see.
There is somebody
I
at schools.
Let's see.
Subcommittee chair, Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, said the name change was quote, an excellent way to recognize the first lady's support and commitment to promoting the arts.
He said, yes, we renamed the opera house at the Kennedy Center for the First Lady, who is the honorary chair of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center.
You will recall that President Trump removed several members of the Kennedy Center board in February, replacing them with loyalists who then elected him chairman of the board.
I did see that.
He also fired the cultural centers president.
and replaced her on an interim basis with a gentleman who has held several roles over Trump's two presidencies so far.
So it was all part of a bill that proposes about $38 billion for all the agencies covered by the measure, which is an overall spending cut of 6% compared to current levels.
And that mainly comes from chopping the environmental protection agency's budget, a whopping
23%.
And then there's all kinds of arts and culture funding that is in there as well.
And if, if, if I'm laughing, it's again, because it is, I mean, you, you cannot, you cannot make this stuff
No, you cannot.
No, no, no.
Let's, let's end with a little.
TV news here.
I was looking at, uh, an article about, uh, here are the 30 best shows to be watching on Netflix this month.
And as usually, I kind of go through it and go, uh, haven't seen it.
Haven't seen it.
Don't want to see it.
Don't want to see it.
But I did get, I did get talked into after seeing the preview for it.
I said, okay, let's, let's watch this one.
Have you seen the one called Nona's with Vince Vaughn?
No, no, no.
Vince Vaughn plays, uh, uh, somebody who wants to open up a restaurant on Long Island.
and do it with Nona's, grandma's, Italian grandma's.
It starts Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco, Brasho, Brenda Vicarro, Talia Shire, and it is, it's adorable.
And it includes a secret recipe and the folks at All Recipes did an extreme close-up on the recipe card and found the famous Nona's Sunday spaghetti sauce recipe.
And, uh, and now they're, they're sharing what, you know, what all is in it.
So you too can make things a little bit better.
Uh, that includes a little bit of like apple cider.
Oh, that is a part of it.
Okay.
Special Ken, you gotta, you gotta make the, uh, the apple cider fresh.
Try that out
it goes.
I, I, I might, I might, I'll let you know.
Uh, some of you are getting a local update.
The rest, some final news and notes here from Madison coming up on the civic media radio network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Once again, a reminder that the Milwaukee Brewers and the Seattle Mariners will wrap up their series this afternoon and you can catch that game on several civic media stations.
Just head over to civicmedia.us to learn more.
The pregame show will begin at 2.05 this afternoon off tomorrow and then a home stand will begin on Friday.
This is now the part of the program where I turn things over to Parker Olson and Parker will now tell us
everything that you need to know about cryptocurrency.
Parker, take it away.
There again was our crypto focus with Parker Olson.
No, the reason I bring that up is because most folks don't know much about crypto.
And the ones who do won't stop talking about it.
And somewhere in the middle, there's both the truth, but also an illustration of the need for better regulation and guardrails for consumers, for financial institutions, for the entire American economy.
And last week was designated as crypto week in the US Congress as they worked on legislation that was said to be.
giving crypto some of the credibility that it was looking for, uh, at least in some forms, something called stable coin, which is a type of cryptocurrency that is pegged to something tangible like the U S dollar.
Although I mean, I have questions about that.
I mean, if you're pegging a cryptocurrency to the dollar, uh, what's the value of the cryptocurrency and how do you really know that it's backed by a dollar?
if it's not being regulated by something like the FDIC, the Federal Depository Insurance Company.
Well, at the state level, obviously that's where our legislators come in and have the ability to at least protect consumers in their state.
Well, they could do that.
They could either protect consumers, protect the economy, or in any given state, they can race to the bottom.
You know, that's part of the beauty of this country being made up of 50 states instead of just one central government all the time, is that
Sometimes you have states that will try to have the, you know, the, the strongest, toughest laws on something.
And in others, they will race to the bottom to say, well, we're encouraging business and we're lowering taxes.
And by the way, we're also polluting our rivers and not educating our children.
So it's up to each state legislature to decide in what direction it wants to go.
And fortunately here in Wisconsin, uh, state Senator Kelder Royce and state representative Ryan Spaudy have worked on a bill.
that would regulate at least some of the use of cryptocurrency.
It has in fact, something part of it has to do with, you know, the, the ATMs or the ATM, uh, like boxes that you're seeing out there that say, you know, right here, you can invest in cryptocurrency.
Well, I mean, can you, or is it just basically is, is that fancy looking ATM?
box really nothing more than a good looking rat hole to send your money down.
And so tomorrow on the program, we're going to talk to the two legislators about that and get their take on, you know, why.
legislation like this is needed at the state level.
So that'll be at 730 tomorrow morning.
We'll also talk to Sharita Booker about some of the things that you can see and do around Wisconsin.
She always brings up various music events and other community gatherings.
And then I like to add all of the county fairs and things that are out there.
And this week,
There's a lot of them.
Opening up today, some have already opened, but today at least all of these county fairs are open through Sunday.
They include the Columbia County Fair in Portage, the Dunn County Fair in Menominee, the Eau Claire County Fair in Eau Claire, the Monroe County Fair in Tomah, the Racine County Fair in Union Grove,
the Rock County 4-H Fair in Jamesville, and the Washington County Fair in West Bend.
And then tomorrow, a few more open up for the rest of the weekend, they include the Langlaid County Fair in Annego, the Polk County Fair in St.
Croix Falls, the Taylor County Fair in Medford, and the Washburn County Fair in Spooner.
And so a lot of great things that you can go to.
But as I go through this list, Parker, it reminds me there's a list I've always been meaning to put together.
And I've, maybe somebody else has already done this, but I have not seen the definitive list of place names that are not in the county that they share a name with.
For example, the Columbia County Fair, as I said, was in Portage, which means Portage is not in Portage County.
The Polk County Fair is in St.
Croix Falls.
St.
Croix Falls is not in St.
Croix County.
There's actually quite a few like that.
And I always keep meaning to put together the definitive list of places that like somehow got evicted from their original counties.
which I know is just a nice coincidence, but we always joke about Wisconsin place names.
There are a lot of Wisconsin place names that are hard to pronounce, but equally difficult for beginning reporters in Wisconsin is when you're covering something in like Tony notes here, you're covering something in Washburn, but Washburn is not in Washburn County.
There have been times where I've taken a script, you know, a new story that somebody's turned in, I'm like, oh.
No, I know that sounds like it would make sense.
Yeah, but you should be right.
Yes.
Yep.
And then there are the similarities of places like River Falls and Black River Falls and all of that.
There's a lot to learn about Wisconsin and we.
We, we can and should be celebrating more of that for educational purposes of nothing else to save you some of the embarrassment.
Yeah.
And, and there, there are several more.
So we'll, we'll explore those together one of these times, but in the meantime, at least what we can have you do is know about the county fairs that are going on in these places.
And then as I noted, Sherida Booker will tell us about some of the other fun things going on around Wisconsin.
Uh, we will also be talking to somebody from the.
Johnson public education network about the summer summit that is taking place tomorrow in Green Bay.
And by the way, Todd Alba is bringing his show up to Green Bay tomorrow afternoon, and he will be broadcasting live from the public education network summer summit.
So look for all of that coming up tomorrow and throughout the course of the weekend.
All right, my thanks to everybody who has taken part in today's festivities, all of our guests, and we look forward to having you back here tomorrow morning, bright and early 6 a.m.
Here up north on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Crichtlow.
Have a great day.
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